Tentative Writing Kills Dreams

I’ve had my blog open for a little over a year now. This is something that I’m proud of, to be sure. With each post, I’ve tried to share some writing types for those who are in the process of writing a novel, as I am. With each blog post, I’ve let it be known that they are tips that I try to implement myself and on subject matter that I’m openly struggling with. I say this to be gin to explain why after a year of talking about, and giving ideas for finishing a novel and the many factors that make it, this is still a process for me. I am admittedly still in the early stages of writing my novel, often time feeling stagnant.

This is because I tend to be a tentative writer. Though I feel that I give relatively sound advice based on my experience as a creative and academic writer, I know I struggle with confidence in my writing for my novel. What progress I make is stunted by a debilitating hesitance as I look over my work. It an all encompassing, and honestly overwhelming, feeling. I feel hesitant about the plot progression, or setting. If I climb that hurtle, I lack confidence in my character building. Once I address that, I’m back to questioning the setting. So how does one get through this.

With a lot of my other blog posts, this advice comes what I’ve changed or tried to change in myself and in what I know is something that will help but struggle with doing. Either way, it’s advice that I do take seriously and do for myself as well.

Understand Your Flaws

As a kid with weird taste, I used to watch Dr. Phil on a regular basis. I occasionally still do if I am in front of a TV when he’s scheduled to come on. I mention this because, there is a phrase that he says that is relevant to this blog. Its that “you can’t change what you don’t acknowledge”. Knowing your weaknesses is the best way to pinpoint why you’re a tentative writer. Some of it may not even be in the writing itself, but in your mindset, which is something that I learned for myself. An example for me, is that my flaw was the lack on confidence in the very way I wrote. I thought it was too bland and read like a bad fanfiction. Some of that was in my own mind. However, since it was a feeling I couldn’t shake, I bought a book to understand the voice of a piece of writing and read books with a stylistic voice that I admired. Know what to fix is the best way to get in the process of remedying it.

Embrace Your Writing

The only other thing that can kill the dream of writing novel for sure, is a refusal to accept yourself. This can really be seen in many facets of life. It’s hard to think you’re successful in anything if you arbitrarily stack yourself against people you’ve placed high value in. This is a sure fire confidence and dream killer. Accepting yourself is the best way to understand what you may want or need to fix in the future.

This advice is something that I’ve been working on within myself. And though my process feels slow, I have noticed positive changes. I hope reading this can evoke a positive change in someone else too.

Need some confidence: consider yourself a method acter (yes, bi-gender form), and ‘put on’ the character as your write – that way, you can force THEM to be confident, progressive – to live through the ordeals they have to bear to learn (or show) the theme/message. I also recommend the Snowflake method (ingermanson – stuff for free on his website), Larry Brooks, and Blake Snyder (save the cat) – all good reads to improve your skills and confidence. Good work/luck!